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Foreclosures in the Riverside-San Bernardino area continued a steady decline last month, but the area's foreclosure rate still topped the national average, according to a report released by Irvine-based RealtyTrac.

In October, 2,808 properties in the Inland-Empire metro area were in some stage of foreclosure, a 10 percent drop from September and a 60 percent drop from October of 2012. RealtyTrac's Daren Blomquist says the fall-off in foreclosures in Riverside-San Bernardino has now continued for 23 straight months.

"It's getting much closer to the level of foreclosure activity we were seeing before the housing bubble burst," Blomquist said, adding that back in 2006, Riverside-San Bernardino averaged about 1,900 foreclosure filings a month. "At the peak of the foreclosure crisis, we were actually seeing some months with more than 20,000 foreclosure filings in that market," Blomquist said.

In October, one out of every 531 housing units in the Riverside-San Bernardino area had a foreclosure filing, according to the RealtyTrac report. That rate ranked as the 30th highest of the 200 metro areas in the country the company tracks monthly. If that ranking still seems high, consider that during the crisis, the market ranked consistently in the top 10.

The Los Angeles market has also seen a consistent decline in foreclosures for nearly two years. In October, about 4,100 properties had foreclosure filings in L.A., down 12 percent from September and down 54 percent from a year ago.

Nationally, the states with the five highest foreclosure rates in October were Florida, Nevada, Maryland, Ohio and Illinois.

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